Lorn Rhys
Lorn Rhys was the Director of the Bureau of Operations within Imperial Intelligence under the reign of Emperor Bacharan Valak, in the years 6 ABY and 7 ABY. Powerful and influential, Rhys was a prominent figure in galactic politics and the Galactic Empire itself. Secretly, however, he was a prominent member of the Vigilant Movement, and rumored to be its leader. In 7 ABY, Valak came crashing down on the Vigilant Movement, and Rhys was one of the Imperials who was hit the hardest. It was believed he was killed by agents of COMPNOR and the Imperial military, and for the most part this was true, as Rhys had entered into a coma and kept under the care of Kartijan Lore of FineLine Spaceways. However, in 12 ABY, making contact with Vassily Korolov, a Royal Guardsman, Rhys returned to the Empire and quietly assembled a force around him known as the Whitecoats. With them, and Korolov's martial expertise, he cultivated a coup against the reigning Emperor Kendal Osbourne. Sparking off the War of the Throne by initiating the Battle of Selene, he turned the entire Imperial realm upside down by not only capturing Emperor Osbourne, but by seizing the Super Star Destroyer [[SSD Palpatine|HIMS Dark Eminence]] and plunging it into Selene, devastating the planet and rendering it sterile. He took twisted delight in casting Osbourne into carbonite as a form of imprisonment in a tortuous "ceremony" with a portable carbon-freezing chamber specially outfitted on his own flagship, HIMS Inquisitor. Rhys spurred his forces on into the Imperial interior, fighting several small, decisive battles here and there with the ultimate objective of Dreven. His forces quickly toppled resistance there as well, and soon stood over the entire Imperial realm. Dominance was still in question, though, as challenges from other powers and entities boiled up, not the least of which was one from the Neo-Imperial Movement. Led by officers that the Whitecoats had previously impressed into compliance, the Neo-Imperials had exceptional intelligence and experience on their side, as well as extensive military initiative. But, through another stroke of treachery, Rhys disarmed the threat and scattered the Movement to the winds. He was about to fully consolidate his power when he was rivaled one last time by the mysterious Darth Pain, who had declared herself Empress in lieu of a proper Emperor. To counter this, Rhys would have to delve into a strength even beyond his own. While eluding a direct confrontation with Empress Pain, he sequestered and transformed himself into Darth Malus, tapping into the Dark Side of the Force with the assistance of Lord Korolov, a Dark Side Adept in his own right. He boldly and decisively confronted Empress Pain and killed her. In the wake of this, he crowned himself Emperor. Throughout most of 12 ABY, Malus and his Whitecoat regime reigned over the Empire, but it became a time of instability, weakness, and lawlessness. Coruscant was re-taken by the New Republic in early 13 ABY, exploiting the lack of concern that Malus displayed for the system's security. Most of the Imperial military, already distrustful of Rhys's Intelligence & Security background, became embittered against their supposed ruler and his lack of cohesive direction. Finally, in mid-13 ABY, a machination was enacted to unseat Malus, and it was done with an insidiousness that spoke volumes as to what was going to come to the galactic scene. Completely without warning, Dreven was surrounded by the fleet of a Darth Malign. Malign swept onto the planet, his presence washing over Malus's attendants like a wave. Korolov proffered no interdiction, and Malign simply overwhelmed Malus, taking him prisoner. In a cruel twist of irony, Malus was cast into a slab of carbonite as he himself had sentenced Osbourne to. Malign conveyed both slabs to Korriban, placing them aboard the [[SSD Malevolence|HIMS Malevolence]] as gifts to his master, Aleister Vadim. Rhys, Lorn Rhys, Lorn Rhys, Lorn Rhys, Lorn